Best of IFA 2020: The most exciting products from this year’s technology showcase

7 Sept 2020

Expert Reviews Staff

IFA 2020 goes mostly online in 2020 but there's no stopping the product launches - we've picked out our favourites from the 'show'

This year’s IFA “Special Edition” technology show was a bit different from normal, with the Coronavirus pandemic preventing the usual gathering of manufacturers, journalists and the tech-hungry public.

However, that hasn’t prevented the usual avalanche of new products and announcements, with almost as much as a regular IFA to sift through and plenty to get excited about.

We’ve run the rule over all the new products to emerge from this year’s product extravaganza and picked out the tastiest morsels to look out for in the coming months.

Honor MagicBook Pro

It might not be as glitzy as some of the laptops released at IFA this year but the Honor MagicBook Pro delivers where it counts. Unveiled on Friday alongside updates to the MagicBook 14 and 15 and a pair of new wearables, the MagicBook Pro packs an AMD Ryzen 5 4600H CPU with integrated AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 graphics, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, plus a 16.1 Full HD display, for a mere £850. This is no cheap and nasty plastic laptop, either. It’s sleek, well made and very light for a 16in laptop.

Best of all, even though IFA is largely virtual in 2020, Honor sent us one to try out before the announcement was made. We were so impressed that we’ve already given it a five-star rating and a Best Buy award.

READ NEXT: Honor MagicBook Pro review

Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G

Samsung’s new Galaxy Book laptops impressed when they were first announced earlier this year but the latest iteration looks to take that up a notch. The new laptop will not only be the first to feature Intel’s 11th Gen “Tiger lake” mobile CPUs but it will also be in the first wave of Intel EVO laptops, a new brand intended to denote the lightest, sleekest, most powerful machines on the market.With 5G on board, a 360-degree hinge, 13.3in touchscreen and bundled S-Pen stylus, the Galaxy Book Flex 5G is the most interesting thin-and-light laptop to be launched at IFA this year.

READ NEXT: Samsung Galaxy Book Ion review

Galaxy Z Fold 2

Samsung took the wraps off its second generation folding phone officially last week and it looks as if it’s going to blow the socks off the firm’s troubled first-generation effort. It has a redesigned hinge and a larger, 6.3in exterior display. There’s a new, larger 7.7in folding screen inside, complete with ultrathin glass covering and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz.

With a lower price than the original, and a slimmer profile at 16.8mm, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 looks set to bring folding phones to the mainstream this year. We can’t wait to get our hands on one.

Fitbit Sense

The long-awaited follow up to the Fitbit Ionic is more than just a fitness-focused smartwatch. Fitbit is making health features the priority this time around with a new EDA stress sensor, ECG monitoring and skin temperature sensing abilities.

With a new, upgraded heart rate monitor, SpO2 tracking and six-day battery life, the Fitbit Sense is the firm’s most advanced wearable to date.

READ NEXT: Fitbit Sense preview

Philips OLED+ 935

The Philips OLED+ 935 was leaked earlier this year but IFA 2020 saw first the full reveal of Philips’ new flagship 4K OLED TV. It’s the first OLED television from Philips that comes in 48in – it’s also available in 55in and 65in sizes – pitting it directly against the 48in OLED models released by LG and Sony in 2020.

The OLED+ 935 makes use of the latest P5 picture processor from Philips, now in its fourth generation. Dubbed the P5 AI, the new chip is set to bring a number of innovative AI-assisted features to the new TV, such as AI Smart Bit Enhancement 2.0 and AI Machine Learn Sharpness. The former “eliminates banding” while the latter seeks to improve image sharpness by analysing content, categorising it then enhancing accordingly. Most intriguingly, Philips says the P5 AI will be able to predict and prevent OLED burn-in, something that should put gamers at ease.

Like its predecessor, the OLED+ 934, the OLED+ 935 will use a built-in Bowers & Wilkins sound system. This time around, the audio setup is even more impressive, with ten drivers that include a central tweeter on top and dual Dolby Atmos upwards firing speakers.

Samsung The Premiere (LSP9T)

Samsung has added yet another product to its versatile and ever-expanding “Lifestyle” product range – and this time it isn’t a TV. The Premiere is a 4K ultra-short-throw laser projector that comes in one of two sizes, 120in (LSP7T) and 130in (LSP9T). According to Samsung, The Premiere is the world’s first “HDR1 0+ certified projector with triple laser technology”, and the larger model is capable of delivering a peak brightness of up to 2,800 ANSI lumens.

The flagship LSP9T model has some impressive looking audio specifications, too. It has a 4.2 channel speaker system that implements Samsung’s proprietary Acoustic Beam surround sound, which we’ve seen previously in some of Samsung’s best soundbars. This offers a convenient audio solution for those who don’t have space to hook up The Premier to a sound system, or simply don’t want the hassle.

Neato D10 robot vacuum

One of our favourite robot vacuum brands, Neato, unveiled three new robot vacuums, but it’s the range-topping Neatop D10 that caught our eye.

Featuring a new, cleaner design than the previous range, the D10 has longer battery life, quick-charging capabilities and a new HEPA filter that can filter particles down to 0.3-microns from the air.

Coupled with the company’s traditional laser-based navigation, D-shaped chassis and wide rotary brush that means it can clean into corners more effectively than most, we’re excited to see how effective the Neato D10 can be when it hits shelves later this year.

Philips Fidelio B97 soundbar

Philips’ latest premium soundbar reprises one of our favourite soundbar designs from the past few years: surround sound “on-demand”. The bar has a pair of battery-powered speakers that can be detached from each end and placed to the left and right of your seating position to temporarily deliver true surround sound when you need it.

It looks to be a great bar for situations where you don’t want surround sound speakers scattered permanently around the room. The B97 also supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X and, says Philips, is the world’s first IMAX Enhanced soundbar. The B97 will be released towards the end of this year, in time for Christmas.

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